For instance, an answering set to tend the phone when no one is home has been a dream for 50 years. In 1935 Bell scientists completed a working model but it was too big, too complex, too costly. Lab people kept going for 20 more years before the 1A Answering Set was announced. The instrument will inform a caller that he is being answered automatically and that it will record his name, number and a message if he wishes. When the customer comes home he presses a button to find out who has called and what they said.